A printed object management apparatus (10) is provided with: a line sensor (11); a spectrophotometer (12); an area camera (13); a print quality-inspecting unit (10A) for inspecting the quality of the overall pattern of a printed object (9) on the basis of data input from the line sensor (11); a print density controlling unit (10B) for controlling, on the basis of data input from the spectrophotometer (12), the amount of ink supplied so that the ink density equals the reference density; and an inter-color registering unit (10C) for detecting register marks printed on the printed object (9) on the basis of data input from the area camera (13) and aligning the patterns between the various colors. The apparatus is configured so as to support the line sensor (11), the spectrophotometer (12) and the area camera (13) on a single scanning head (10b).

An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus configured to form an image on a recording medium and an output device configured to output information for a user. The image forming system further includes circuitry configured to acquire, from a reading device read data of the image on the recording medium; calculate a correction value of an image density of the read image; cause the image forming apparatus to form, on a recording medium, a corrected image based on the correction value; and acquire, from the reading device, read data of the corrected image; and cause the output device to output report information representing a relation between a density variation value of the corrected image and a threshold of the density variation value.

A printing apparatus includes a first interpretation unit configured to generate intermediate data of a page by interpreting print data, a second interpretation unit configured to generate intermediate data of another page by interpreting the print data, and a controller configured to perform, according to a specific print setting command indicating that a specific process is to be performed on all pages, control such that the specific process is performed on all the pages. The controller performs the control if the specific print setting command is included in a specific page.

According to an embodiment of this invention, an image processing apparatus for acquiring image data edited after obtained by image-capturing an object performs the following processing. More specifically, the apparatus obtains information, equivalent to a distance from a focal plane in image-capturing, corresponding to image data before editing, obtained when image-capturing the object, and generates information, equivalent to a distance from a focal plane, corresponding to the edited image data, based on the edited image data, and the information, equivalent to the distance from the focal plane, corresponding to the image data before editing.

An image forming apparatus includes a transferor, a first detector to detect an image formed on the transferor, a second detector to detect an image formed on a recording medium, and circuitry. The circuitry is configured to generate first gradation correction data based on a detection result obtained by the first detector, generate second gradation correction data based on a detection result obtained by the second detector, and control gradation correction for the image formed on the recording medium using the first and second gradation correction data. Further, the circuitry is configured to prioritize one of the first and second gradation correction data based on at least one of a characteristic of the recording medium and a characteristic of the image in the gradation correction during consecutive printing in which images are consecutively formed on recording media.

A printing apparatus includes a reception unit that receives outline information representing an outline of a character, a generation unit that generates, using the outline information, a bitmap including pixels corresponding to the character, the pixels being associated with a graphic attribute, a changing unit that refers an attribute associated with a pixel adjacent to one of the pixels corresponding to the character, and changes a density value of the adjacent pixel associated with the referred attribute being different from a graphic attribute and a character attribute to a density which is based on a density value of the one pixel, and a printing unit that prints an image based on the bitmap after the change.

Systems and methods applicable, for instance, to the generation and usage of authentication images. In one aspect, unauthorized attempts to duplicate authentication images can be thwarted. In another aspect, there can be provision for authorized authentication image generation using low-resolution print devices.

An image processing apparatus has a dynamic range compression unit that converts an input luminance signal included in a developed data into an output luminance signal by using a conversion parameter. The unit obtains an input black reference luminance value and an input white reference luminance value of the luminance information included in the developed data. The unit, on a basis of print medium information and observation environment information, obtains an output black reference luminance value and an output white reference luminance value and calculates a reference output luminance value for observation. The unit generates a conversion line and generates the conversion parameter by using the conversion line. The conversion line indicating a correspondence between the input luminance signal and the output luminance signal.

There is provided an image processing apparatus which can generate a vector image with a high image quality at a high speed in a small memory capacity. The present invention generates an image with low resolution by performing resolution conversion to a compressed image with high resolution and obtains information of a character object with low resolution by performing object division to the image with the low resolution. The compressed image with the high resolution is decompressed and an image showing a character contour with high resolution is generated by using the information of the character object with the low resolution obtained by the object dividing and the decompressed image with the high resolution. At the time of performing the decompression, the compressed image with the high resolution may be partially decompressed based upon the information of the character object.

A code formation method for forming an information code on a target object is provided. The information code stores information with an array of a light area and a dark area. The code formation method includes forming an emissive layer by applying, to the target object, a coating material containing a reactive paint that emits light in response to invisible light, and irradiating a portion of the emissive layer corresponding to the dark area with laser light to reduce an emissive performance of the dark area to be lower than an emissive performance of the light area. The irradiating with the laser light includes irradiating with the laser light to make a transmittance for the invisible light in the portion corresponding to the dark area higher than a transmittance for the invisible light in a portion of the emissive layer corresponding to the light area.